Goodloe: We're not renourishment bad guy

By Rick Catlin. Islander Reporter

The Millennium dredge owned by Goodloe Marine of Apollo Beach returned to its mooring station off Bayfront Park where a family enjoyed the beach in Anna Maria last week in preparation for the planned resumption of the beach renourishment project. Islander Photo: Rick Catlin

Ben Goodloe of Goodloe Marine said his company's work crews are
already gearing up for a resumption of the beach renourishment project
by Friday, April 7.

"We're
shooting for April 7," said Goodloe. "We'll
be working this week to get the pipeline up and running.
If the weather holds, we should be OK."

And weather has
been a key factor in the entire renourishment project,
which began in early July but was plagued by numerous
hurricanes and summer storms.

While hurricanes
and other storms interfered with the project from July
to November, Goodloe said the regularity of winter
storms and cold fronts passing through Florida that
would certainly interrupt the operation further prompted
the company to call a halt for winter.

The
renourishment work was halted in December, he said,
because the job "was never designed for winter
work.

"It was
just going to be unsafe to continue working," he
added. "Our primary concern had to be a safe
work place where we could do a good job."

The U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers agreed with that decision and Goodloe
even offered last November to remove the pipes already
on the beach for the winter months.

Originally, he
said, the Corps did not want the pipes taken off the
beach, then was unable to find a suitable storage area
for the pipes and equipment.

"We've
been made out to be the bad guys, but we've been
trying to get the Corps to cooperate with us all along," he
said.

Goodloe kept
asking for a staging area and received no response
from the Corps.

Part of the problem,
reasoned Goodloe, could be that the Anna Maria Island
beach renourishment project is a county job using Federal
Emergency Management Agency funds with the Corps in
control. That can often lead to some political in-fighting
with Goodloe Marine caught in the middle, he said.

But the project
is on pace to resume this week, he added, noting that
generally, the weather along Florida's Gulf Coast
in April and May is fairly benevolent.

"Let's
pray this weather holds. If it cooperates, we'll
get this job done," he said.

Goodloe also
said that contrary to Corps online records, his company
has already been paid $2.7 million of the $4.9 million
contract. The renourishment effort is already 70 percent
complete, he said, with just about 4,000 more feet
of beach to be renourished. The project had reached
19th Street North in Bradenton Beach before halting
for the winter.

The company will
also look at renourished areas that may have been eroded
by the numerous winter storms and shore those areas
up with more sand if needed.

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